The Diary of a French Private: War-Imprisonment, 1914-1915Riou, Gaston
History
The Diary of a French Private: War-Imprisonment, 1914-1915
Riou, Gaston
National characteristics, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons
A little while ago, a French comrade asked him to pay a debt. He frowned,
drew himself up, and assumed an offended air. Turning to d’Arnoult, who
was passing at the time, he said:
“When I think of the way in which, scorning the risk of death, I have
provided him with goods, how I have hazarded my life again and again to
bring him tobacco, and that he now dares, in your presence, to insult me
by asking for this paltry sum of twenty-four marks! I punish such a man
with my contempt.”
“Oh,” answered d’Arnoult commiseratingly, “don’t rub it in. You have
punished him enough already!”
Georg has a soaring imagination. He loves the great and the impressive,
that which breathes order and power. He loves his commanding officer.
He loves the royal army. He loves his uniform. He loves that civilians
should tremble before him. He loves to be admired. He loves to make a
heroic figure in the world. After one of our casual feasts, when Brissot
asks him to sing some Munich songs, he reserves always for the tit-bit
certain verses which he declares he wrote himself in praise of one of
his numerous _Geliebten_. We gather that in the village of Hepperg
alone six women are madly in love with him—the burgomaster’s wife, the
schoolmaster’s wife and sister, the wives of both the grocers, and the
belle of the countryside. “The seven nights of the week,” he gravely
assures us, “hardly suffice.” Whereupon, this Don Juan removes his cap
and takes a small collection from the guests. He is so expert a liar that
I suspect him of being the first victim of his own romances. Every one
knows him to be _felduntauglich_, a man unfit for active service. But
this is no hindrance to his having taken part in the battle of Dieuze and
to his having been wounded there by a French bullet! He bares his chest
and makes you touch the scar. Tarascon is situated much further to the
north than most people imagine.
On All Souls’ Day we went to the Ingolstadt cemetery. Détry and I carried
the wreath. Half hidden by the leafy garlands, tied with the French
colours, we set the pace firmly through the Theresienstrasse, which was
packed with townsmen come to stare at us, almost all in mourning—old men,
women, wounded soldiers on leave, and a noisy rout of children. There
were no hostile cries, as there had been two months earlier. Some of the
onlookers uncovered as we passed; the children loudly demanded buttons
as souvenirs, crying _Knopf_, _Knopf_, in a manner that was not at all
bellicose. We went at the quick march, eyes front, knowing well that we,
the prisoners, were the victors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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